WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. private employers continued to hire at a high pace in March in a sign of strength in the labor market. Data showed Wednesday.

The ADP National Employment Report revealed that private payrolls rose by 455,000 jobs in February. The revised data for February showed 486,000 new jobs instead of 475,000 as originally reported. Reuters economists had predicted that the private sector would see an increase of 450,000 jobs.

With a huge drop in coronavirus-related cases, the COVID-19 restriction being removed across the country is boosting the labor market. It is not clear that Russia’s over-one-month-long war against Ukraine has had an impact on the labor market.

While the 52-1/2-year-old lows in unemployment applications are the lowest since 1970, the total number of Americans without jobs is at their lowest point since 1970.

Moody’s Analytics, a joint developer of ADP’s report, was published before the Labor Department’s much more detailed and closely monitored employment report for March. However, it has a bad record of predicting private payrolls in the Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report. This is due to methodology differences.

According to government data, Tuesday’s job openings were near record at 11.3 Million. This left the gap between workers and employers at 3.0%. It was close to December’s post-war high of 3.2%. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 490,000 jobs according to a Reuters survey. In February, the economy generated 678,000 new jobs.